By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

The Southern Buckeye Conference named their boys’ track and field All-Star teams following the completion of yet another successful year locally as well as making the steps to represent Clermont County upstate.

Goshen’s Calvin Phillips was the lone Clermont student-athlete to receive an individual honor, being named the Field Event Athlete of the Year in the American Division of the SBC.

“Overall, (Calvin) had a great season and he improved tremendously,” Goshen track and field coach Jack Bailey said. “He set personal records four times throughout the season and broke 50 feet in the district and regional meets. He improved over his high school career, especially this year.”

Phillips was the lone Clermont County male athlete to qualify for the state meet. He advanced out the district meet into the regional as a district champion in the shot put as well as the third-place finisher in discus.

Phillips was unable to qualify in the discus at the regionals, but threw 50-feet-9.25 inches in the shot put to advance in the shot put.

Phillips was joined on the First Team by teammates Jake Nelson, Nick Brown and Phil Senters. Fellow regional qualifier in the shot put, Darren Wiley, was named to the Second Team All-Conference.

Other regional qualifiers honored by the SBC were New Richmond’s Austin Torrens and Pierce Burnam. Burnam was the district champion in Division II in the 300-meter hurdles. He also qualified for the 110-meter hurdles. Torrens was an 800-meter qualifier. Bobby Bingham, a member of the regional qualifying 4×800-meter relay team, was also a First Team selection. Rounding out the New Richmond contingent on the First Team was Alex Nelson, a senior who won the league championship in the 400-meter dash.

New Richmond’s Second Team honorees included a pair of regional qualifiers in Branston Evans, who qualified in the discus and Luke Gilday, another member of the 4×800 relay. Tyler Anderson, a sophomore pole-vaulter and Zach Fields, a junior distance runner and long jumper, were also named to the Second Team.

Amelia’s Austin Brown, the SBC-American high jump champion, was the lone Baron to receive special recognition, being named to the First Team All-SBC.

In the National Division, CNE and Williamsburg took home most of the hardware as both had four individuals placed on the First Team.

For the Wildcats, all four of their First Team members were also regional qualifiers. Lee Brandon, a senior pole-vaulter and hurdler, won the district crown in the pole vault and finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles. Corey Stith, a senior 110-meter hurdler, finished second at the district meet, earning him a spot in the regional meet. Cody Minnie, a junior long jumper, finished second at the district meet to earn him a place at regionals. And Ryan Boggs, a senior sprinter, won the district title in the 400-meter dash.

On the Second Team from Williamsburg were three more regional qualifiers. Jamie Simmons, a senior, finished second in the district high jump. Pearce Williford, a junior, finished fourth in the high jump and Lane Edminsten, also a junior, was a member of the regional qualifying 4×100-meter relay team that finished third at districts.

For the Rockets, junior Tramaine Smith was named to the First Team for his sprinting, a league runner-up in the 100-meter dash and third-place finisher in the 200-meter dash. Senior Austin Thompson was the SBC runner-up in the long jump and came in fifth in the 400-meter dash. Ben Frazier, a senior, was the SBC-National pole vault champion and freshman Dalton Miracle finished fourth in the SBC in the 200-meter dash.

Batavia’s lone honoree was Griffin Stith, a junior distance runner who finished runner-up in the SBC-National 1600- and 3200-meter runs as well as qualifying for the regional meet due to a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash at the Division III district meet.